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Postcode Lottery receives licence in Norway

The Postcode Lottery will start to raise funds for charity in Norway. On Friday, Novamedia Norsk Postkodelotteri AS, together with its partners SOS Barnebyer and the WWF, won one of the three lottery licences in the draw for games of chance in Norway. The licence makes it possible to hold a Norwegian version of the Postcode Lottery – the charity lottery in which you and your neighbours win together. The Novamedia/Postcode Lotteries organisation has already raised more than €8 Billion (NOK 74,678,400,000) for charities and thousands of social initiatives throughout the world.

The Dutch social enterprise Novamedia has worked for more than fifteen years to give Norwegians the opportunity to win with their neighbours, while, at the same time, generating money for non-profit organisations. This draw marks the first step towards a joint lottery for SOS Children's Villages and the WWF, with Novamedia Norsk Postkodelotteri AS as the operator. “Now we will first analyse the requirements of the license and make a plan for the coming period,” says Cecilia Bergendahl, Managing Director of Novamedia Sverige AB, which operates the Swedish Postcode Lottery.

Eva Struving, International and Charities Director: ”We are very happy with this licence. We have fought for it for years, even as far as the European authorities. It's pretty ironic that we finally got a lottery licence through a draw! Fortunately the draw was in our favour. Now we are looking forward to raising funds for charity in Norway too.”

Third largest private donor in the worldNorway will become the fifth country to see the establishment of a Postcode Lottery for charities. The Dutch format is now in operation in the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany and Sweden, and has become the third largest private donor in the world for charitable purposes. “Working with the Postcode Lottery is a great opportunity” says Bente Lier, Secretary General of SOS Children's Villages. “We know that even in the first year we can count on funding for social programmes.”

The vision of the Postcode Lottery is to make the world a better place to live in by supporting social organisations. Without these organisations, change is not possible. The lottery raises funds by contributing a percentage of the ticket price directly to charity. “It’s great that this is possible now and that we can shortly make a start in Norway,” says Nina Jensen, Secretary General of the WWF. “Together we can make the world a bit better.”